SMS & Voice Notification Usage: What Happens When You Hit Your Cap

This article covers SMS and voice usage. For email usage tracking, see the Civify System Emails article.

The short version

Your monthly SMS and voice allowance only limits mass broadcast sends — compose-and-send notifications, scheduled blasts, and road restriction broadcast alerts. Verification codes, welcome texts, and automatic replies keep working even after you've reached your cap.

What stops working at your cap

Once your organization reaches its monthly SMS/voice limit, the following will not send until your next billing cycle resets, or your allowance is increased:

These are all broadcast sends: anything triggered by a compose-and-send notification, a scheduled blast, or a road restriction broadcast alert.

What keeps working, no matter what

These activities are never blocked by your monthly cap, even after you've reached your limit:

• Registration welcome texts (opt-in confirmations)
• Phone verification codes
• Inbound SMS auto-replies (VERIFY, STOP, HELP)
• Landline verification robocalls / resident voice verification

They'll still show up in your usage totals, but they won't be interrupted — residents can always verify a phone number, respond STOP/HELP, or get their welcome text regardless of where your org stands on its monthly allowance.

Whose credentials handle each send

Mass SMS and voice broadcasts run on your organization's own Telnyx credentials — there's no alternate path for broadcast sends.

The "always works" activities above also send using your organization's Telnyx number. 

A note on allowance and overage

If Civify manages your Telnyx integration keys, broadcast usage counts against your included monthly allowance and may incur overage charges once you exceed it. If your organization manages its own Telnyx account outside of Civify's billing, your cap and overage terms are governed by your own Telnyx plan instead.